O2 simulators? What do YOU use? Mine doesn't work

[r37ribution]

I hollowed out my cat on my '96 X 4.0L OHV and installed an O2 simulator. It just connected between the O2 connector and the trucks wiring harness for the O2. Well the P0420 code "catalyst efficiency below threshold" error keeps cropping up every 200-800 miles. I dunno what to do.

The kit came with 2 O2 simulators. Later tonight I'll try the other one. I know there composed of 2 resistors and a diode or something like that. I guess its possible one of these could be bad?

 

[TheRookie]

maybe one is bad, perhaps the manufacturer can tell you what resistnace and such you should get from them.
Now on to hollowing out your cat. This is a bad idea and I will tell you why. I am not going to preech enviornment to you I will however tel lyou why it doesnt help any. The trick to exhaust is flow. Smooth straight fast flow. Backpressure is the enemy. FLOW and backpressure are often mistaken for eachother but are different. Now you did indeed decrease backpressure when you hollowed your cat. You also decreased flow. This is a bad thing. What happens now is the exhaust gets to the hollow canister that used to be a cat and it fills the space. This causes the air to swirl and be turbulent. You DO NOT want this at all. In fact if you Dynoed your x you may have even lost some power. Of course the "it should have made a gain so i feel like it did" thing is there but it is counter productive. If you wanted to remove your cat ( I do not condone this) you should have put a test pipe in its place. Of course both practices are illegal. If you want to know more about this LMK and I will try to go more indepth

 

[Doug904]

I hollowed out my cat on my '96 X 4.0L OHV and installed an O2 simulator. It just connected between the O2 connector and the trucks wiring harness for the O2. Well the P0420 code "catalyst efficiency below threshold" error keeps cropping up every 200-800 miles. I dunno what to do.

The kit came with 2 O2 simulators. Later tonight I'll try the other one. I know there composed of 2 resistors and a diode or something like that. I guess its possible one of these could be bad?

Hey guy,

If you'll let me know when you're ready for a chip I can simply turn them off in the PCM programming and it won't look for them at all. I think your problems lies in the fact that the PCM not only looks for the efficeincy of the cats from the 02's but also the heater circuit, but it could be a faulty MIL?

thanks, Doug.

 

[r37ribution]

...Of course the "it should have made a gain so i feel like it did" thing is there but it is counter productive...

I would love more info and I COMPLETELY understand what your saying about flow. Only I had 192,000 miles on this origional cat. I know exactly what your saying about how "it should feel faster so it does even tho it's slower" even tho it may have made absolutly no difference at all or even made my situation worse. I understand this because I have caught myself pretending this before...

But it seriously did effect my truck in a positive way, the pedal requires less travel to the floor to get you started from stop. On the freeway I have to push the pedal in less to get her moving, and she upshifts far less.

Now to combat my 11.5Mpg that occures only when the check engine light is on for the rear O2 I have been going to Murray's (a MI auto parts store in case they are not National?) and clearing the code every time it comes on and I go right back to 16-18Mpg. Of course when the MIL light does come on a little performance loss is experienced, but it still performs better than it did with the cat. I don't know if this is related to how many miles were on my cat or what but the performance is there. I just don't understand why it keeps coming back.

Doug904 - I dunno if I wanna chip a X with 192,000 miles but I will be giving this truck to my sister and buying one with a 5.0L that I will want to chip. I actually already have one but I want one newer than a '97 and thats a Limited. So if anyones looking to buy a '97 XLT black 4 door 5.0 with grey leather hit me up!

 

[Eneurb]

<<<cough, cough>>> I wonder where all this pollution is coming from?

 

[r37ribution]

haha...Do you Canadians even use an EGR valve?! Or is that just Japan that doesn't have emissions.

 

[huskyfan23]

You should run a test pipe so what Section said doesn't happen. And get a chip from Doug.

Or as many others would say, buy new cats so we can all live 1 second longer

 

[Eneurb]

haha...Do you Canadians even use an EGR valve?! Or is that just Japan that doesn't have emissions.

Our emissions regulations in Ontario are as tight as "Green State" regulations.

 

[TheRookie]

You should run a test pipe so what Section said doesn't happen.

didnt know section had posted here

 

[huskyfan23]

HAHA! Coulda sworn you were him! Sorry about the insult

 

[lonefx4]

my cats are completely gone and i have yet to invest in O2 simulators. its been a few months and no light has come on my dash and i checked all the bulbs to make sure. maybe taking the simulator off might fix it.

 

[r37ribution]

didnt know section had posted here

LOL i even scrolled up and checked a lil bit ago. I thought he was talkin about another thread where me n section were talkin so I didn't post anything.

my cats are completely gone and i have yet to invest in O2 simulators. its been a few months and no light has come on my dash and i checked all the bulbs to make sure. maybe taking the simulator off might fix it.

I wish my truck worked the same way, the light was already on for something else so I'm not sure how long it took to come on. I actually removed it because I thought it was clogged, NOT for performance reasons. I was getting "heating element malfunction" for all 3 O2s, yeah this ended up being a fuse. I replaced the fuse at the auto parts store and used their OBD2 to clear the codes and the origional codes were gone but now I had "P0420 catalyst efficiency below threashold." I kinda was lookin for an excuse to remove the cat anyways, which is why I didn't research the heating isu much before jumping right in.

 

[BuffaloXplorer]

i was looking at my cat as a reason for my 10-11mpg and it turns out it's fine...unfortunately...don't know where to go from here...

Looking to buy...

(eneurb, remember this one?...)

...and why.

 

[r37ribution]

Hey Doug,
I completely redid my EGR system and I'm still getting an intermit rough idle can you eliminate all EGR sensors in addition to the Rear O2 sensor if I order a chip from you? Hell what other emissions can I get rid of? Might as well take 'em all off, their just going to cause continued problems on my truck with almost 193,000 miles on it.

 

[boble86]

and i have a test pipe sitting in my garage that i took off for inspection and is to lazy to put back on. interested??

 

[r37ribution]

Perhaps, will it bolt up directly to that wierd oval shaped Y-pipe? Got any pics?

 

[boble86]

pipe

 

[PEP]

Ford calls them mil eliminators:

www.mileliminators.com

 

[r37ribution]

boble86: Looks good, why did you need to inspect it? Leaking?

PEP: All of the MIL eliminators I have seen (including @ www.mileliminators.com) install inbetween the O2 and the harness, but with this test pipe I won't have any where to install the O2? Do you just zip tie the O2 to the frame rails?? lol

 

[r37ribution]

I actually already have a BBK MIL eliminator installed on my truck but the "Catalytic converter below threshold" code keeps haunting me and 11.5mpg is horrible! The box came with 2 MIL eliminators and I have tried both. In fact I just keep going back up to the local auto parts store and borrowing the scanner to clear this code every 3-4 days so I can get decent milage. Gas prices are horrible!